Tabitha Vogelaar

Wesley Neelen

Hackers Handshake – Photo exhibition brings helpful hackers up close

Hackers are generally portrayed in the media with hoodies, masks, or shadowed faces to underline their criminal intent. This exhibition displays helpful hackers who seek, find, and report vulnerabilities in computer systems in order to improve security. They report their findings to the owners of the vulnerable systems first and then to the hacker community, governments, and businesses that may have a concern in such a system. This practice is currently known as Responsible Disclosure, or Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure. The Netherlands is spearheading this way of collaborating with hackers.

Photographer Tobias Groenland collaborated from 2014 to 2018 with writer Chris van ‘t Hof to bring this diverse group of helpful hackers up close to you in image and story. Each hacker was asked to think of their favourite programming language or hacking technique during the photography session.

The term ‘handshake’ refers to the process of setting the rules of communication between two computers. Once both sides agree, they can establish a trusted connection, recognisable, for example, in the ‘s’ (for ‘secure’) in ‘https:’, and in the small lock displayed in your web browser. This exhibition aims to establish a trustworthy connection between the viewer and hacker to disclose vulnerabilities, fix them, and make the internet safer together.

Exhibition opening – Atrium The Hague

Exhibition impression – Atrium The Hague

Exhibition

The following individuals and their portraits are included in the exhibition.

The artworks are displayed on a steel tube frame. Next to the prints a display is shown with the title and all information about the photography project. Prints are on display during the following events.